Coronavirus outbreak: Passengers stranded at Secunderabad railway station due to curfew

HYDERABAD: More than 100 passengers were stranded at Secunderabad railway station due to the janata curfew on Sunday. Most of them had started their journeys on March 21 and reached their destinations on Sunday. With most cab and auto services shut down due to janata curfew, passengers found it hard to go home.
“There are no cabs available, and the taxis and autos are also not running.We don’t know how long we will have to wait. Most of the cab services are also cancelling our bookings saying that the distance is too far,” said Rajshri M, resident of Banjara Hills road number 10 who had arrived from Guntur.
While some online cab aggregator services were taking bookings, they were unwilling to take passengers to faraway destinations in the city. Along with that, passengers also complained that due to dynamic pricing, they were forced to pay twice the amount of money that they usually pay. “I live in Begumpet and usually it takes me around Rs 120 to go from Secunderabad railway station to my home, the prices have gone up today. I will have to pay Rs 300 for such a short distance,” said Venkat Sai, another passenger who was found waiting at the station.
With most passengers wore masks and maintained distance from their fellow passengers, they were faced with a dilemma when buses to their destinations offered to take them. “These buses are filled with many people. It is not safe to travel like this,” said another passenger. While some passengers were screened thermally at the stations, a major portion were left unattended. Heavy deployment of railway police was done at Secunderabad railway station.
Taking buses and overpriced cabs, most of the stranded passengers found a way or another to travel to their destinations as most of the crowd had dispersed by 2 pm. With citizens voluntarily participating in janata curfew and South Central Railway (SCR) cancelling more than 200 trains for the day, most railway stations in the city wore a deserted look on Sunday after 1 pm. “I was supposed to travel from Lingampally to Falaknuma in an MMTS train at 11.30 am but I could not find a single vehicle to take me from Chandanagar to the station,” said Vijaya Kaveri, another passenger.
With all train services cancelled till March 31, a number of people whose offices and colleges have been shut down had booked tickets to their home destinations but are now stuck in the city. “I had booked tickets to Kolkata for Tuesday but the ticket was rescheduled and then cancelled. Now, all the train services have been cancelled. We will be under a lockdown soon,” said Prachi Sharma.